Lancer Concept #9 — Rusmeri

Super Short Summary: Finally, an EvoS concept from the Tiggarius Laboratory! The Walrus is the best kind of frontline: big, tough, and also big. Did we mention big? She’s so big she can take up additional squares. Her ultimate lets her detach her tusks and wield them as swords, enhancing her abilities. What’s not to love?

The short version of the commentary is that this concept has three really cool things going for it. One, the ultimate enhances your other abilities in thematically appropriate ways (see “With Tusks” for each ability). Two, the dash is kind of unique and lends a lot of flavor to the out-of-control nature of a walrus sliding around into stuff. And three, Blubber Up is just awesome, in my humble (?) opinion. (This concept is dedicated to Ohlookitswalrus.) In lieu of further commentary, I just put some notes below each ability where clarification is needed.

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Rusmeri, the Attack Walrus

Affiliation: EvoS
Role: Frontline
Hit Points: 190

Lore: Haven’t fleshed this out too fully yet, but she works at EvoS and does some combination of office manager / office mom, lots of cooking, and obviously she’s an attack walrus.

Primary — Flipper Smack — Blast Phase
Smack enemies in front of you and to the sides (half circle of 2 range). Deals 26 damage to enemies hit. Gain 8 energy per enemy hit.
>> With Tusks: Slash around you with the tusks. Same shape targeter but increased in size by 1 (3 range), dealing 34 damage to enemies hit.

Notes: The targeter is similar in shape to Meridian Boneshatter, but doesn’t hit 3 wide, only 2 wide and up to 2 in front. Similar to Asana, but instead of a 3/4-ish pie, you only have half a pie.

2 — Harpoon — Blast Phase — Cooldown 3
Throw a tusk in a line up to 7 range. The tusk deals 24 damage to the first enemy it hits and slows the enemy until end of turn. Gain 8 energy if you hit an enemy.
>> With Tusks: Throw 2 tusks (targeter similar to Celeste primary, with 120 max angle). Hitting the same enemy with both deals only an additional 6 damage.

Mods:Savage (2 points) (default) — if the target is Unstoppable, deal an additional 6 damage.Walroot (3 points) — root the target instead.Impale (3 points) — pierce the target. The second target takes 12 damage and is also slowed.Tusk Retrieval (1 point) — if you do not hit an enemy, reduce the cooldown by 1.Got Excited (1 point) — gain an additional 8 energy if you hit an enemy, but no longer slows.

3 — Blubber Up — Prep Phase — Free Action — Cooldown 3
Gain 60 shields this turn and take up additional space. Gain 4 energy on use and an additional 4 energy for each source of direct damage that hits you while Blubbery.
>> With Tusks: Throw a tusk at any enemy that deals direct damage to you this turn, dealing 12 damage.

Notes: You take up adjacent squares, becoming a 3×3 hit box. You can temporarily be on the same location as other lancers (ally or enemy). If an effect would hit such a square and potentially hit either you or the other lancer, it hits you. (Effects that can hit multiple enemies hit both of you as normal.) On increasing size, you pick up any adjacent powerups. You do not trigger traps by becoming larger. Any given ability can only damage you once this turn, i.e. as normal (e.g. Gremo primary, Celeste Smoke Bombs, etc. can hit you in multiple places but will only do damage once).* The effect ends at the end of Blast Phase, at the same time as knockbacks occur, so you are no longer Blubbery when knockbacks or movement this turn occur. As a result of blubber mechanics (unless I were to carve exceptions, which I originally had done), if you engulf an adjacent enemy with your blubber, you will automatically be hit by any non-vertical line attack they shoot. You can’t increase your size through a wall (including Rufflebucket wall).

*If one Gremo mine is targeted to your center location, that one deals the damage appropriate to a direct hit. If the other Gremo mine would hit you, it does not deal damage but leaves the mine underneath that square. If neither Gremo mine is targeted to your center location but both would hit your blubber, the first one deals damage appropriate to a direct hit, and the second leaves a mine underneath that square.

Additional Notes: Please let me know if I missed any important edge cases with regard to how this ability functions.

4 — Swimpact — Prep Phase / Dash Phase — Cooldown 4
During Prep Phase, shoot a line of water (width of an Oz primary) on the ground up to 8 range (it will go the full 8 unless it hits a wall). The water slows all enemies hit until end of turn. During Dash Phase (same turn), dash along the water path, dealing 20 damage to enemies passed through and slamming the ground on impact site, dealing 24 damage to adjacent enemies and slowing them. Gain 2 energy per enemy hit by the water and 4 energy per enemy hit by any portion of the dash.
>> With Tusks: Impact deals an additional 6 damage. Water path freezes into ice at the end of Blast Phase, dealing an additional 10 damage to enemies on the path and rooting them.

Notes: Enemies can only be hit by the dash portion OR the impact portion. Unless the water path is shortened as a result of hitting a wall, you must dash the full 8 squares. (The impact, being a 1-radius circle, can technically hit 9 squares away.) Using Blubber in conjunction with Swimpact will increase the radius of what you can hit along the path (the radius increase CAN result in triggering traps during the dash that you otherwise wouldn’t, but you also collect the powerups within your radius). Blubber Up does not increase the size of the impact zone.

Mods:Swimmense (2 points) (default) — gain Unstoppable until end of next turn.Fishiles (2 points) — during Prep Phase, also throw a fish at the landing location (3×3). Enemies in that area smell like fish, revealing them until the end of the next decision phase. If the dash hits enemies that smell like fish (i.e. if they do not also dash this turn), gain 4 additional energy per smelly enemy hit.Body Slam (3 points) — on landing, root enemies in the impact area (instead of slowing). Impact damage decreased by 4.Long Distance Swimming (1 point) — increase the range of the water, and dash, by 1.Brick Wallrus (1 point) — if your dash is stopped by a wall, the impact slam goes through the wall (i.e. gains an additional 1 range in front of you on each wall square so it hits up to an extra 1×3 in front of you). Does not work for walls more than 1 tile thick.

Ultimate — Tusks Out — Blast Phase — Requires 100 energy
Let out a walrus bellow and draw your tusks as swords. The bellow deals 30 damage to all enemies within a 2×2 circle around you and knocks adjacent enemies back 1 square (away from you). For the next two turns, your abilities are empowered (the mods of those abilities apply as usual).

Flip Off (3) — Got Excited (1) — Squelch (3) — Fishiles (2) — Extra Tusky (1). Utility-oriented build with some solid energy gain. We have Flip Off for haste, so we don’t need the slow on Harpoon as much. We take Squelch again for weaken, and Fishiles for reveal. Got Excited and Fishiles can get you some energy, and Extra Tusky lets you use your ultimate as basically an empowering for your next two turns without really worrying about hitting enemies with it. You could try some other variants, too, such as Vibrissae on 1 and something slightly more powerful on 2 such as Walroot or Impale.

Aggressive (2) — Walroot / Impale (3) — Wellrus (1) — Body Slam (3) — Growl (1). CC heavy build. Use either Walroot or Impale to lock down targets, as well as Body Slam. Growl provides a little extra CC on the ultimate as well. Wellrus and Aggressive are just decent use of points, but you could certainly ditch both for Squelch to capitalize on the enemies being locked down adjacent to you.